$3,355 pp (USD)
2 travelers on Start dateArrival
Arrival
Day 1
Welcome to Tanzania
Welcome to Tanzania
Your driver-guide will be waiting at Kilimanjaro International Airport or Arusha Airport to greet you and transfer you to Arusha – a journey of around 45 minutes to an hour through the farmland surrounding the city, with Mount Meru often visible above the horizon.
Today is unhurried by design. After check-in at Malkia Trees Lodge, the rest of the day is yours to relax, recover from the journey and take in your first sights and sounds of Tanzania. The lodge grounds and restaurant are the perfect place to ease into the pace of safari life before the adventure begins in earnest tomorrow morning.
In the evening, your guide will walk you through the days ahead – covering the timing of the calving season, what to expect in Ndutu, and how the route has been shaped to give you the best possible experience of this remarkable annual event.
- Main Destination:
- Arusha (City)
- Accommodation:
- Malkia Trees Lodge
- Meals & Drinks:
Day 2
Transfer to Tarangire National Park
Transfer to Tarangire National Park
After breakfast, you set off for Tarangire National Park, around two hours' drive south-west of Arusha. The moment you enter the park, the landscape shifts into something distinctive and beautiful ancient baobab trees, their vast, swollen trunks rising like sculptural landmarks above the golden grass.
Tarangire is named after the river that runs through its heart, and this waterway draws some of the largest elephant herds in the country to its banks – family groups of 20, 30 or more moving between the trees and the water in full view. Beyond elephants, the park is excellent for giraffe, zebra, buffalo, and a remarkable diversity of birdlife, with several hundred species recorded across the wider ecosystem.
You will spend the day exploring the park at a leisurely pace, with your guide leading you through the different habitats in search of whatever the day brings – from lion resting in the shade of an acacia to a family of warthogs trotting past on their knees to graze.
- Main Destination:
- Tarangire National Park
- Accommodation:
- Foresight Eco Lodge
Wildlife in Tarangire NP
- Meals & Drinks:
Day 3
Transfer to ngorongoro crater
Transfer to ngorongoro crater
After breakfast you will drive from Tarangire north towards the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, climbing through the highlands to the crater rim before descending onto the floor of one of Africa's most extraordinary natural features. The Ngorongoro Crater is the world's largest unbroken, unflooded volcanic caldera, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with crater walls rising some 600 metres above a floor covering approximately 246 square kilometres.
Your guided game drive down into this natural amphitheatre is one of the finest safari experiences in East Africa. The crater supports an extraordinary concentration of wildlife: large prides of lion, clans of spotted hyena, rare black rhino, and huge buffalo herds roam the grasslands, while the central soda lake, Lake Magadi, attracts flamingos and other waterbirds. Elephant bulls with impressively long tusks are a regular sight, often moving calmly right alongside the vehicle.
- Main Destination:
- Ngorongoro Crater
- Accommodation:
- Ngorongoro Farm House
Wildlife in Ngorongoro Crater
- Meals & Drinks:
Day 4
Transfer to Ndutu region
Transfer to Ndutu region
Today is the heart of the safari – your first full day in Ndutu, the southern Serengeti ecosystem that becomes one of Tanzania's most remarkable wildlife theatres between December and March. Ndutu sits at the junction of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and the Serengeti, and it is here that the Great Migration's enormous wildebeest herds gather to give birth, their calves hitting the ground running within minutes of being born.
The concentration of life at this time of year is staggering. Hundreds of thousands of wildebeest and zebra carpet the short-grass plains, and where there is prey in such numbers, predators follow. Cheetah – one of Ndutu's signature species – are frequently seen hunting in the open, while lion prides, spotted hyena and even wild dog (one of Africa's rarest predators) are all possible. The area is also excellent for tree-climbing lions, a behaviour more commonly associated with Uganda but seen here too.
- Main Destination:
- Central Serengeti National Park
- Accommodation:
- Safari Haven Serengeti Camp
Wildlife in Serengeti NP
- Meals & Drinks:
Day 5
Transfer to Arusha
Transfer to Arusha
Your final morning in Ndutu is another chance to soak in this remarkable landscape before the journey home. Enjoy a last guided game drive on the short-grass plains – the light in the early morning hours is particularly beautiful, and predator activity is often at its highest just after dawn.
After a packed lunch and one last look across the horizon, you will begin the drive back towards Arusha and Kilimanjaro International Airport, taking in the changing scenery as you leave the calving plains behind.
This marks the end of your Ndutu safari. We hope the sights, sounds and emotions of these five days have given you a deep and lasting connection to Tanzania – and that this is only the beginning of your story with Africa.
- Main Destination:
- Arusha (City)
- Accommodation:
- No accommodation (End of tour)
- Meals & Drinks:
